![\"\"](\"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/AfricanLionKierhaByHilaryWeissbard-200x300.jpg?resize=200%2C300\")
The Rosamond Gifford Zoo is mourning the loss of its female African lion, Kierha, who died on Sunday. She was nearly 18 years old and lived at the zoo most of her life. The cause of death has not been officially determined, but zoo officials say Kierha had recently\u00a0been anesthetized for examination and testing after showing signs of health issues common to\u00a0elderly female felines. Unfortunately, she died due to complications of her condition.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs is the case when we lose any of our animals, it was a very sad day when Kierha left us,\u201d said Zoo Director Ted Fox. \u201cHeroic efforts were made by the zoo staff and Cornell University\u2019s veterinary staff to ensure that her last days were as comfortable as possible.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kierha and her two siblings, Mindine and Joshua, were born on April 21, 2000, at the Baton Rouge Zoo and came to Syracuse as 8-month- old cubs. The public enjoyed watching the triplets grow up, and Kierha was known as the least dominant and most mellow of the three. She had a\u00a0habit of sticking her tongue out and in recent years liked to nap atop the rock cave in the lion exhibit.<\/p>\n
She outlived her sister and her brother, who passed away in 2014 and 2015 respectively.\u00a0In November 2015 the Syracuse zoo acquired male lion M\u2019wasi from the Bronx Zoo as a companion to Kierha. The two became close and could often be seen cuddled up together on exhibit.<\/p>\n
\u201cKierha was regal, and a great ambassador for her counterparts in the wild,\u201d said Janet Agostini, President of the Friends of the Rosamond Gifford Zoo. \u201cWe will miss her dearly, and we know that her many admirers in our zoo community will miss her as well.\u201d<\/p>\n
Zoo patrons last saw Kierha on exhibit at the zoo\u2019s Holidays with the Animals event, when animals receive enrichments in the form of gift-wrapped presents filled with treats.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m so glad she was able to go out that day and enjoy her holiday gift,\u201d Agostini said.<\/p>\n
If anyone would like, donations toward animal care at the zoo can be made in Kierha\u2019s memory
\nat www.rosamondgiffordzoo.org\/donate.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The Rosamond Gifford Zoo is mourning the loss of its female African lion, Kierha, who died on Sunday. She was nearly 18 years old and lived at the zoo most of her life. The cause of death has not been officially determined, but zoo officials say Kierha had recently\u00a0been anesthetized for examination and testing after […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":87617,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[76,8],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-87616","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-obituaries","category-top-story"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack-related-posts":[],"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p43meu-mNa","jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/madisoncountycourier.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2017\/12\/Kierha-and-Mwasi-by-jgramza.jpg?fit=5174%2C3442&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87616","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=87616"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/87616\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/87617"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=87616"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=87616"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/madisoncountycourier.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=87616"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}